Background Report to the Recovery Plan for Littoral Rainforests and Coastal Vine Thickets of Eastern Australia

Prepared for Australian Government Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities. March 2012 - February 2013.

BAAM prepared a background technical and issues report to inform the development of a recovery plan for the EPBC Act listed Critically Endangered Threatened Ecological Community - Littoral Rainforests and Coastal Vine Thickets of Eastern Australia, a community with distribution from Princess Charlotte Bay (north of Cooktown) in Queensland, to East Gippsland in Victoria.

The report outlines the legislative context for the community, both federally and across the three states of its distribution, as well as interactions with existing plans, policies and programs. Ecological descriptions of the community were updated since its original listing based on current information, and a review of historical and current land uses is provided to inform threat identification.

BAAM’s report updates the distribution information for the community by integrating mapping from a variety of existing datasets to derive preclearing and current distributional maps. This information was used to inform the assessment of rates of decline, areas conserved in the reserve system and aided in the analysis of threats to the community.

Reporting was informed by an extensive stakeholder consultation program. Key stakeholders were from government bodies, Natural Resource Management groups, traditional owners, researchers, bushcare groups and conservation groups. The results of the consultation informed the investigation of potential issues for recovery throughout the range of the ecological community.

In order to focus and prioritise actions for the recovery plan, the major threats to the ecological community were delineated and ranked, and recommendations for its definition, mapping and management were provided.